Correlation between MR Image-Based Radiomics Features and Risk Scores Associated with Gene Expression Profiles in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the correlation between magnetic resonance (MR) image-based radiomics features and the genomic features of breast cancer by focusing on biomolecular intrinsic subtypes and gene expression profiles based on risk scores.

Materials and Methods

We used the publicly available datasets from the Cancer Genome Atlas and the Cancer Imaging Archive to extract the radiomics features of 122 breast cancers on MR images. Furthermore, PAM50 intrinsic subtypes were classified and their risk scores were determined from gene expression profiles. The relationship between radiomics features and biomolecular characteristics was analyzed. A penalized generalized regression analysis was performed to build prediction models.

Results

The PAM50 subtype demonstrated a statistically significant association with the maximum 2D diameter (p = 0.0189), degree of correlation (p = 0.0386), and inverse difference moment normalized (p = 0.0337). Among risk score systems, GGI and GENE70 shared 8 correlated radiomic features (p = 0.0008–0.0492) that were statistically significant. Although the maximum 2D diameter was most significantly correlated to both score systems (p = 0.0139, and p = 0.0008), the overall degree of correlation of the prediction models was weak with the highest correlation coefficient of GENE70 being 0.2171.

Conclusion

Maximum 2D diameter, degree of correlation, and inverse difference moment normalized demonstrated significant relationships with the PAM50 intrinsic subtypes along with gene expression profile-based risk scores such as GENE70, despite weak correlations.